


You Always Make Me Smile

by SmolPidge



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Actor AU, F/M, Fluff, Gerome is an actor, and Cynthia is his ray of sunshine, modern day AU, mostly just fluff, though there isn't a lot of actual acting involved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 02:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13284948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmolPidge/pseuds/SmolPidge
Summary: When Gerome's agent warns him to branch out in terms of the roles he's taking, he enlists the help of his girlfriend, Cynthia, in order to become more "charming." It ends up as well as one would expect.





	You Always Make Me Smile

**Author's Note:**

> It didn't come out exactly as I had intended, but oh well I suppose. Hopefully, my secret santa will still enjoy it. Either way, the fluff awaits!

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s downright hilarious, Gerome.”

“Can you just help me already?”

“I’m trying to! Shouldn’t this be amusing enough?”

“It’s not.”

“Not with that attitude.”

“Please?” Gerome couldn’t help but run his hand across his face in exasperation. He only had a couple hours to spare and, as much as he loved his girlfriend, he had no time to mess around.

It didn’t seem like Cynthia was in any hurry, though. Instead, she kept interrogating. “Tell me again why you’re doing this exactly? It’s not like you to take on roles that require so much… _charm._ ”

“According to my agent, the dark and brooding hero is falling out of style,” Gerome explained, leaning back in his chair. “If I’m gonna keep up in the movie business, I have to _broaden my range_.”

Gerome had been working as an actor for the past few years, and although he was steadily growing, his agent had warned him about staying in his niche for too long. So far, he had exclusively stuck to antihero roles, ones that truly took advantage of his natural disposition. As it turned out, however, there were only so many roles to go around, and if he was ever going to compete with the existing big Hollywood names, he was going to have to branch out. Unfortunately for him, his advances had been anything but successful. At this point, Cynthia, being the boundless ray of sunshine that she was, was his best bet.

“Well, I get what she means,” Cynthia chuckled. “You’re really good at portraying the two emotions you have.”

“I’d say I have four,” Gerome rolled his eyes, momentarily getting caught up in the moment.

“If you want to count anger, frustration, and annoyance separately, then maybe.”

“Cynthia, focus, will you?” Gerome pleaded with her.

“Fine, fine,” she gave in, straightening herself from where she had been lying on her bed. “Where do you want me to start?”

“I wish I could tell you.”

“Nothing?”

“Uh…” Gerome paused. “Well, I need to learn how to smile.”

“But, you already know how to do that!”

“Not on command!”

“C’mon, you’ve done it plenty of times before!” Cynthia insisted, inching closer to him. “All you have to do is lift the corners of your mouth. Not much science to it.”

Gerome did as she said, but, simple as it sounded, he could tell by Cynthia’s face that his smile was nothing to write home about.

“No luck, I’m guessing?”

Cynthia didn’t respond, instead reaching for her phone on her nightstand. “Here, maybe you need something to make you laugh,” she suggested. She handed Gerome her phone, which was beginning to play some sort of compilation on YouTube.

“You know I don’t find this kind of stuff funny,” he tried to argue with her.

“Just try?”

“Okay, okay.”

As suspected, Gerome couldn’t even crack of a chuckle. He was just as plain-faced as he had been before watching countless falls, puns, and witty humor sketches on a screen. If anything, he was more somber.

“Any other suggestions?”

“Well, what _do_ you find funny?”

“Uh…” Gerome hesitated, thinking back on the last time he laughed. Once he realized that he had to think back a couple of weeks, or perhaps more, he gave up on the idea.

“Forget it,” Cynthia grew impatient. “There’s got to be something! It’s not unusual for me to see you smiling, so what’s the deal now?” 

“At this point, why don’t we just use Google?"

“Eh, why not?”

And so, for the next hour or so, Google became their faithful companion. From watching Gerome’s favorite TV shows to listening to the peppiest songs ever created, they took Google’s word for everything. Even so, it seemed that the more they tried, the more his facial muscles refused to budge. Gerome had already anticipated and accepted such an outcome, but Cynthia gradually grew more and more desperate with each failed attempt.

“You’re being ridiculous,” she eventually snapped, rushing over to him and physically moving his mouth into the shape of a smile with her hands. “Can you at least hold that?”

Concentrating as best as he could, Gerome clenched his muscles as Cynthia removed her fingers. He realized too late that he was perhaps clenching too much, and with one glance at his girlfriend, he knew what he feared was true.

“You look like you’re constipated,” she commented dryly.

“I will be at this rate.” Gerome dropped his excuse for a smile and checked his watch. If he wanted to avoid the traffic, it was about time he left. “I’ll be back tomorrow,” he added. He wasn’t sure to what extent returning would benefit him, but he was running low on options, so he was willing to give it another couple shots.

“Already?” Cynthia looked at the time as well. “This took longer than I thought.”

“Same.” Putting on his jacket, Gerome started to head for the door.

“Are you sure you don’t want to spend the night? You know you’re always welcome~”

“I have an early shoot tomorrow. Can’t.”

“Bummer,” she pouted. “I wish you’d just let me move in already.”

“One day,” Gerome instinctively replied. “But right now I think you’re fine just where you are.”

As much as he would like to invite her, he would rather keep his career and private life separate. Cynthia was always someone he could come back to if he was having a stressful day, and getting away every weekend to see her was like a dream. Besides, he didn’t want to know how she’d react to the stardom. She’d probably have it all go up to her head. If his compliments were already enough to push her over the edge, he didn’t want to see her with everyone else’s in mind. The tabloids would certainly love her as much, if not more, than he did.

“If you say so,” she shrugged, already used to his answer whenever she made the suggestion.

“Sorry I wasn’t a good student.”

“Chill,” Cynthia brushed it off, her mood improving by the second now that her work was done for the day. “There’s always next time.”

“Hopefully by then I’ll be a little more charming,” Gerome commented as he was about to close the door.

Cynthia never let him off with the final word, though, so before he could do so, she quipped, “Oh, don’t worry about that too much; you’ll always be charming enough for me.”

Gerome’s face lit up bright red, as was often the case when Cynthia caught him off guard. Still, the compliment didn’t fall on deaf ears. A round of flattery was now underway, and all he could do was hope it didn’t take too long to wrap up. All he had to do was think of something to call back at her and-

“YOU DID IT!”

His thoughts were interrupted by Cynthia’s shriek. Without warning, she jumped up from her bed and bounded across the room, pushing the door wide open and throwing his arms around her.

“What, what did I do?” Gerome confusedly pushed her away far enough for him to look at her face.

“You just smiled!” she grinned. “What were you thinking about? What caused it?”

It hit him in a flash. Of course Cynthia had been the only one to see him smile so much. She was at the root of it! He had been right to seek her out after all.

“I know you’re thinking in there, tell me!” Cynthia pressed, stepping on his foot to get his attention.

Suddenly too embarrassed to tell her outright, Gerome quickly came up with an alternative. “You know what? Move in with me.”

Cynthia instantly forgot everything and exclaimed, “Really?!”

“I think I need you more with me than anyone else needs you here in this stinky apartment.”

“Gosh, I better get packing!” Cynthia broke away after planting a quick kiss on his cheek and hurried back indoors, opening her closet wide to reveal a couple of huge suitcases.

“Don’t you want to wait until the month is over? You already paid rent!”

“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Cynthia smirked. “After today, you’ll be taking care of all of it.”

“Huh? I didn’t say you’d be living there for free.”

As she set both suitcases on top of her bed, Cynthia replied with, “Once I leave, I’ve got to quit my job. You said you needed me much more than anyone needs me here, and to me, that sounds like you’re willing to take responsibility for me being unemployed.”

“Fine, maybe I’ll let you off the hook for a few months.”

Cynthia just hummed in response; she was too busy folding clothes and emptying drawers already.

“Well, if you’re that eager, then I’ll pick you up tomorrow afternoon?” Gerome proposed.

With a big thumbs up, Cynthia nodded. “Count me in.”

With that, Gerome finally closed the door and made his way to the stairs leading down to the parking lot. He had to take back what he had thought earlier. There was no way that they tabloids would ever love Cynthia more than he did.


End file.
